


Waiting at the platform

by norsellie (flamewarrior)



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, M/M, Sestina, poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:41:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26008921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamewarrior/pseuds/norsellie
Summary: Bucky's thoughts as he waits and watches at the time travel platform.A sestina is called the 'change ringing' of poetry.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 9
Collections: Stucky Bingo 2020





	Waiting at the platform

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Waiting at the platform  
> Creator(s): norsellie  
> Card number: 050  
> Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26008921  
> Square filled: 2A - Betrayal  
> Rating: G  
> Archive warnings: None  
> Major tags: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Poem, Angst, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug  
> Summary: Bucky's thoughts as he waits and watches at the time travel platform.  
> Word count: 352

**Waiting at the platform**

I wish there was some way you could delay  
and not betray your mission in some way;  
but wishes will do nothing but deceive  
when truth is that you must prepare and leave.  
Until the moment when you will return,  
whether for seconds or a lifetime, I will burn

this torch for you. My heart and soul will burn  
for you, my love: please, please do not delay.  
You could journey for years and still return  
to this same time and place. I have no way  
to know if you’ll return as you now leave:  
wan and sad. There’s no way to deceive

myself that you are happy. You deceive  
yourself, or try to; my eyes and throat burn  
with words unspoken as you take your leave.  
You step up to the platform: no delay.  
You send no reassurances my way.  
I wonder if you will in fact return

or stay far in the past: a strange return  
to people and to places you’d deceive,  
and history you’d shatter to get your way.  
The man I knew would let the whole world burn  
before he’d do that. He would not delay  
to tamper with the timeline or not leave

the past to be the past. He would not leave  
me lonely in this time; he would return,  
as swift as light, to be with me. Delay?  
No. He would choose this present. To deceive  
the world for selfishness would burn  
and chafe his soul. There is no way

that Steve would twist fate for himself that way.  
But his face, as he prepares to leave...  
I doubt. My memories still flake and burn:  
like ghosts, only as ashes they return.  
I cannot trust my mind; it will deceive.  
But does my heart? Or does my hope delay

the truth from landing. You do not delay.  
You close your helmet and are on your way.  
I wait. And wait. My eyes do not deceive:  
the platform’s empty. I turn round to leave...  
and see you sitting. Here is your return:  
I smile, and let my heart and wishes burn.


End file.
